What will this crisis really do to your business?

My previous post was about skills we would need more than ever post COVID. Here is the link if you want to read it first.

What would you do in a time of crisis? What would you do if everything that could go wrong, did indeed go wrong? Perhaps you have had discussions about this or entertained workshops with groups like Trendhunter where “dystopia” scenarios were explored. However now that we are, actually living in a crisis - how do the hypotheticals compare?

I’m guessing they probably don’t measure up.

If you have ever watched some of the very popular, contest-based shows on television, perhaps you noticed an interesting pattern. The singer who can do a fantastic job at home or in their local karaoke joint totally croaks on American Idol or the Voice. The baker who has practiced a recipe 100 times and loved the results is now struggling on the “great British bake off” to even get their pie finished, let alone be the masterpiece they envisioned. Athletes also encounter issues with performance when a scout from university shows up or they end up in the finals unexpectedly. What happened in these scenarios? These are not exceptions, these are quite common outcomes, more common in fact than the converse.

What happened is nerves and pressure were suddenly applied at to an extreme degree. Pressure that had never been experienced before nor imagined in all the practice and the preparations. Pressure in life, pressure in business and pressure in science all have the same effect, the cracks and flaws are exposed, the stress causes unforeseen situations, and the response gravitates to the most inappropriate inclinations.

So how has your business responded to the current crisis?

Taking the high road, leading by example, putting people first, thinking long term - these are all easy to do when business is good. This is where most companies lean when the economies are thriving, and revenues and profits are on track with projections. BUT, when times are tough and a global crisis has debilitated those results, suddenly that is not so easy. The great Tom Peters said years ago, right after 911 and right before the financial crisis of 2008 that great companies use downturns to invest and develop their people so that they can ride the next upturn with greater success. He had evidence and case studies of corporations that had done just that. However lay offs and staff reductions seem to be considered wiser and are more prevalent. It is hard though to develop your people when they ae not working for you.

I also believe great companies, those that are driven by values, do not change course even in the most critical situations. Good companies compromise but do so with reservations and guilt and attempt to maintain some of these values. Unfortunately, most companies revert right back to revenue and profit pinching practices - as if they can “save” or “cut” their way out of a crisis. Nothing is further from the truth.

The bottom line is that history and case studies prove that leadership is only great leadership in tough times. Anyone can look good when the things are rolling along in the right direction. But working in directions that are unconventional, investing instead of reducing, zigging rather than zagging - none of these are easy, none of these are natural and many times they do not please Wall Street nor boards nor investors. But does that mean that they are wrong? Does that mean that over the long term they will not prove more financially viable and profitable than the opposite approach?

At this point, I know it might be hard to answer the question as to exactly what this crisis will do to your business. However, one thing is certain: it will test your values, it will indicate how real your guiding principles are and those responses will heavily influence what happens now and over the next ten years.